Community Work

We’re incredibly proud of our financial products and first-class customer service. However, we’re also leading the way when it comes to social and community-led initiatives.

We’ve always had a purpose beyond profit. It isn’t just about complying with the law and having an equal opportunities policy in place; it’s about being fair and socially responsible in everything we do – for our customers, our communities and our people.

That’s why we can offer you a firm belief in doing what’s right in a place where you can feel genuinely proud to work.

Join us and you’ll even get a say in what charity and socially responsible work we get involved in – and the chance to take part too, of course. In fact, here are a few projects our people have been busy working on over the past few years:

Sleep Out Project

Homelessness is hard, devastating, dangerous, and isolating. And it affects around 150,000 young people across the UK each year. It’s a big reason for our ongoing partnership with Centrepoint, the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity. They support young people aged 16 to 25 who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, by providing them with accommodation, access to health services, life skills training and a route to employment through the services they provide.

In October we sponsored Centrepoint’s Manchester Sleep Out, which saw hundreds of people swap their beds for sleeping bags to raise funds to tackle youth homelessness.

Over ninety of our colleagues signed up to take part. It was a fantastic event mixed with entertainment, live music, and an opportunity to hear inspiring stories from young people who have received help from Centrepoint. Our main mission that night however, was to raise money through braving the cold, and experiencing a taste of what it can be like to sleep rough.

Chloe Stafford who took part in the project shared her experience. “Trying to sleep on the cold, damp, hard floor, with nothing but a sleeping bag was tough, and a real eye-opener to the realities of homelessness.”

It was a hard-hitting and humbling experience for our fundraisers. But at the end of it all, they knew they were lucky enough to be going home to a warm and comfy bed. A luxury that too many young people across UK don’t have.

From meeting the inspiring young people that Centrepoint have helped, to gaining a glimpse of what sleeping rough is like. The whole event highlighted the amazing work that Centrepoint do in supporting young, vulnerable people, and how important it is to carry on raising awareness and money to tackle youth homelessness.

We’re so proud of our colleagues for taking part, and making a difference. Together, they’ve raised over £40,000 for Centrepoint through this event that will go towards supporting around 2,000 young people next year in Greater Manchester.

Graduates get stuck in and make the difference

In September, we were luckily enough to work with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust on a project that helped the local wildlife – A cause very important to us.

The task was to reclaim an area of marshland that was a key breeding ground for animals, and the primary food source for bats – a species facing population decline across the UK.

So, in true Co‑op spirit, a team of graduate volunteers headed to Moston Fairway to tidy the marshland and save the animals. It was a great show of camaraderie as the team worked together towards the shared goal for a better community. Everyone got stuck right in, cutting back overgrown plants, and chopping down young tree saplings.

The sun stayed out, and the whole group enjoyed a day-out with nature. But the most rewarding part was coming together as one team to give back to the local community, and seeing the difference made at the end of the day.